[the_snooze]

I see this talking point a lot, and I feel it requires a bit more nuance.

Those bombs were Ukraine's in the same sense that the bombs in Minot AFB are North Dakota's. If the US were to suddenly fall apart (as the USSR did), North Dakota wouldn't suddenly become a nuclear power just because the bombs are physically stationed there. They could use them to jump-start a nuclear program, but those are otherwise orphaned bombs with no one having immediate means to control them.

[wiseowise]

Ukraine was pretty much military factory of the USSR. Do you seriously believe they couldn’t decode and take control of the nukes?

Russia even threatened invasion if Ukraine started messing with those nukes.

[TiredOfLife]

Ukraine built those bombs/rockets. Replacing control electronics with ones under their control would have been much faster and cheaper than to build new ones from scratch.

[an_guy]

USSR built those bombs and most of the people who worked on it moved to Russia.